The Bees’ Needs is a citizen science project of the CU Museum of Natural History. Between 2013 and 2016, we passed out 1,200 bee blocks in the Northern Front Range of Colorado which have been monitored by ~2,000 volunteers who have collected data on well over 11,000 nests. We have learned that nearly 100 different types of bees and wasps reproduce nest in our bee blocks, and we have compiled a library of tens of thousands of images of their nests and behavior.
Given the success of The Bees’ Needs project to date and the need to process the data we have already collected, we have decided not to pass out bee blocks for this coming summer. We will use this year to focus on summarizing and analyzing the data from the past four years and to publish our results. This will allows us to share our finding with the scientific community, all of our wonderful volunteers, and others interested in conserving bees in their own backyards. We are so very grateful for all of our Citizen Scientists who have been integral to the project’s success and look forward to returning the results of our study back to you.

Help Us Conserve Native Bees

Make Your Own Bee Block

Plant Bee Friendly Plants

What to do in Your Backyard